Finance Minister Arun Jaitley might not accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to Brazil for a BRICS summit next week. (File photo)
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley might not accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to Brazil for a BRICS summit next week, as his presence is required in Parliament with the Budget session now on, sources have said.
This despite the fact that high on the agenda is the setting up of a 100 billion dollar BRICS (the group of emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) bank.
Mr Modi leaves on July 13, three days after Mr Jaitley will present the new government's first Union Budget.
Sources said, Mr Jaitley, who was scheduled to accompany him, could be asked not to go based on a request from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu that he be in India since standing committees of Parliament are yet to be formed and discussions on demands for grants are expected to take place.
In a sharp departure from the past, the PM will also only take with him on board his official plane Air India 1, a limited press entourage drawn from Doordarshan, AIR, Photo division, ANI, PTI and UNI. This will bring down the number of media personnel travelling with the PM from 34 to six, officials confirmed.
Mr Modi is expected to meet a number of heads of state on the visit, including BRICS leaders Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Jacob Zuma and the host, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil's Fortaleza, where the summit begins on July 15.
He will also visit Brasilia, Brazil's capital, where he is expected to meet leaders of other South American countries, invited by President Rousseff.
At Fortaleza, the BRICS leaders are expected to sign a treaty to launch the much-delayed bank officially. They also need to decide if the bank will be based in New Delhi, Shanghai, Johannesburg or Moscow. Brazil will not offer headquarters because of upcoming presidential elections that could delay negotiations, a Brazilian official said.
The new development bank would help cover growing demand for project financing that has not been entirely met by global multilaterals, which, for years, have been heavily criticized for meddling in the domestic policies of sovereign borrowers.
India, Brazil and South Africa have all demanded a permanent Security Council seat, and Russia and China endorsed their claim at the BRICS summit in Sanya, China in 2011.